The NL central is going to be tight. The Cubs are improved with Soriano, the World Champion Cardinals who were only a .500 team to start with are weakened, the Astros got Carlos Lee, the Brewers could be good with Capuano/Sheets healthy, and the Reds could have a great pitching staff this year. I definitely think Harang/Arroyo could be even better. That division is gonna be a rat race right to the end and anyone could win it.

I know that a lot of you are still terribly concerned about these new ballcaps. But instead of responding to each PM and e-mail individually, I thought it might be easier to just make a quick update here.

Still curious about the new caps, I stopped in my local haberdashery the other day to try one out for myself. And with my keen eye for detail, I was pleased to discover that, outside of a few aforementioned chromatic differences to the underbelly of the cap, that there are no discernible differences between these new polyester-blend caps and the woolen caps of yesteryear.

Of course, the real selling point of the "synthetics" is not what they look like brand-new; it's what they look (and smell) like at the end of the summer, after gallons and gallons of sweat have been, er, sweated into them. So, I'm afraid we won't know the results of this multi-million dollar experiment for some time to come.

But, in the immortal words of Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, it's looking good so far.

Interesting. At my head shop (is that the correct term?), they only had the new hats for one team, and they mentioned that even that was a derelict shipment, and they weren't supposed to get the rest of the new ones in until April. So, not to fret, gentlemen: It's not so much that Canada and Minnesota are "behind the times" (well, I mean, they are, just not in regards to these new caps); it's more like that Oklahoma is just incredibly-progressive when it comes to this particular issue (but, for that matter, all other issues, too).

Of course, all this begs the question:

Have Hostess and the Minnesota Twins ever teamed up for a Bill Veeck-like promotion? Because, to me, that seems like a natural partnership.

Buster Gunning, heir to the Hostess Twinkie fortune, takes us into detail about the new Minnesota Twins/Twinkie partnership, a story that hits close to home for our surly reporter.

The Hostess Company, makers of the indestructible “Twinkie”, have sealed a deal with the Minnesota Twins to buy the stadium naming rights to the Metrodome.

The new name will be displayed as soon as Hostess can put the finishing touches on a giant 50-foot Twinkie replica that will hang above the stadiums entrance and is rumored to contain the actual filling present in all store-bought Twinkies.

Hostess representative Sam Puckett (no relation to twins star Kirby Puckett) was very excited about the partnership calling it a great revenue source for both the Twins and Hostess.

“It is widely known that many Twins fans around the area, some as far away as Minot, North Dakota, lovingly refer to the Twins as “the Twinkies.” This creates the perfect opportunity for our two businesses to create an advertising relationship. We at Hostess truly believe that the name ‘Twinkie Stadium’ is a perfect fit for our fabulous Minnesota Twins.

Details of the arrangement were not known at this time, however, as part of the contract Hostess will covert the concessions entirely to Twinkies and Twinkie related products. There is even talk of some kind of alcohol Twinkie concoction.

“I won’t go into too much detail about our new alcoholic Twinkie as I do not want to ruin the surprise,” said Puckett. “What I can tell you is that the cup will be actual Twinkie breading and the alcohol will take the place of the filling. Delicious!”

I did come across these when I was out last week. I don't view the changes as anything that I need to update my collection over, so I'm sticking with the wool ones for now. At least one company won't be getting houndreds of my dollars this year...

Logged

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